If I was clever enough to manipulate pictures, I would do one from the scene in Braveheart where Mel Gibson is on horseback, motivating the Scots to fight against the English. But instead of Mel Gibson talking about freedom, we could have the President urging “dependency.”

I wrote a detailed blog post yesterday, showing that European governments have been very reluctant to restrain the burden of government spending.

Part of the problem is that the debate in Europe is a no-win exercise, pitting proponents of higher taxes (which is largely how Europe’s political elite defines “austerity”) against proponents of higher spending (notwithstanding a long track record of failure, the Keynesians have come out of woodwork and are claiming that bigger government stimulates “growth”).